Bernalillo County jail investigates inmate death after medical emergency

Another inmate death at Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center has put the Albuquerque jail back under scrutiny after a 62-year-old man suffered a medical emergency and was pronounced dead by University of New Mexico Hospital staff. Bernalillo County posted an official notice titled "Metropolitan Detention Center Inmate Dies" on July 20 and has not released further details about the latest death.

The county jail has already posted other death notices this year. On Feb. 7, Bernalillo County identified Josh Alvaro Sandoval, 43, as the man who died at UNM Hospital after an apparent suicide attempt while in custody at MDC. On April 28, the county identified Derrick Benavidez, 18, who was booked into MDC on March 15 and was discovered in medical distress by a corrections officer at about 4:49 a.m. on April 27.

Those deaths have landed against a long record of warnings about conditions inside the jail. In December 2023, concerns over MDC conditions continued after a recent inmate death, and the ACLU of New Mexico said in July 2022 that inhumane conditions at MDC were the result of over-incarceration.

Bernalillo County has previously acknowledged population pressure at the facility. A county report said officials developed a population plan in 2014 to keep MDC inmates below 1,950, and a University of New Mexico Institute for Social Research briefing note tracked the jail's population analysis and broader jail population trends.

The latest death leaves unresolved the same basic questions that have followed earlier cases at MDC: how quickly medical distress was identified, what treatment the inmate received, and whether the county's long-promised fixes have changed the conditions inside the jail. Bernalillo County has not said whether staffing, medical response or other facility problems played a role in the newest death.